About CHPI
The Centre for Health and the Public Interest (CHPI) was founded in 2012 by a number of academics and healthcare professionals, who were concerned about the radical changes to the NHS, public health and social care being introduced by the 2012 Health and Social Care Act.
This Act of Parliament sought to turn the NHS into a competitive healthcare market, in which private companies and NHS hospitals would compete with each other to win business. The passing of the 2012 Act ushered in a period of significant growth for the for-profit healthcare industry in the UK and radically changed how public health was organised. It built on the developments which had already taken place in the delivery of social care services in England.
Although there was already plenty of evidence about the problems of market-based health care - ranging from poor outcomes for patients to fraud, wasted resources and conflicts of interest – no other organisation was concerned to bring this to the attention of policy makers, the public or the media.
Whilst other health think-tanks focused on more technocratic aspects of health service delivery, the Centre was set up to focus on other dimensions of health policy. These included looking at how those making decisions could be held to account, how public money is used to deliver health and social care and how corporate power impacts how patients, service users and healthcare professionals are treated.
Undertaking this work involves drawing on academic disciplines not normally used by health policy think tanks – these include finance and accountancy, regulation, law, financial crime and political science.
The Centre was established as a networked organisation – rather than relying on a core team of researchers and administrative staff it has established a wide-ranging network of academics and healthcare professionals to provide expertise and assistance to the Director and administrative staff.
We also work with patients, service users and health and care professionals, in particular those who have been affected by the areas that we look into.
Why CHPI?
Impact reports and financial transparency
The Centre is a registered charity and a non-party political organisation. We do not take any money from government or the corporate sector.
We rely on grants from organisations such as Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, the Tinsley Trust, the Friends Provident Foundation and individual donations. We seek to be fully transparent about our funding sources and declare any donation which is above £5000
Our annual reports and accounts which can be found on the Charity Commission website here:
In addition, to our annual report and accounts, each year we produce an impact report setting out the work that we have done over the previous 12 month period and how this has contributed to the debate about the future of the NHS and social care. You can read these here.
